'Appalling' conditions at women's jail slammed

educational, health and social care experts.

In a 70 page report published in February, Mr Taylor listed 20 concerns, including rating the prison at the lowest possible grade for safety.

He said: "There had been four self-inflicted deaths since our last inspection and rates of self-harm were very high and increasing. Many women told us they did not feel well cared for.

"The number of times force had been used against women had increased significantly, and we were not confident it was always used as a last resort.

"Leaders had been too slow to reintroduce support to help women maintain relationships with their children, families and significant others."

He highlighted Houseblock Four, which he said in effect housed, in segregation, women who could not be placed elsewhere in the jail due to their mental health needs or associated behaviour.

Mr Taylor said: “The criteria for why women were sent to the unit were unclear and its role was not properly established or overseen.

"The cells were appalling, dilapidated and covered in graffiti, one was bloodsplattered, and some had extensive scratches on the walls which reflected the degree of trauma previous residents must have experienced."

He said he was also "deeply concerned" for the welfare of staff working in a challenging environment.

The report said: "They were dedicated and courageous, but were not adequately trained or qualified to support the women on the unit.

"They received no clinical supervision, despite being exposed to prisoners in great distress, some of whose levels of self-harm were extreme.

"Neither the leadership team nor, in their recent visits, the prison group director’s staff, had noticed the severity of this situation."

The previous inspection in 2019 made 10 recommendations about key concerns.

Since then only three had been achieved, two had been partially achieved and five had not been achieved.

A Prison Service spokesperson said the report was “deeply concerning”.

The spokesperson said: “We are already addressing the serious issues it raises.

“We are providing additional staffing, creating a new taskforce dedicated to improving the safety of women at the prison and are performing maintenance work of the areas mentioned by the Inspectorate.”

Extra staffing would include moving staff from other local prisons, the spokesperson said.

The taskforce had already recruited psychologists to assist delivery of enhanced support to women with the most complex needs, funded better support women in the early days of custody, and piloted a new model of staff training.

The spokesperson said that since the inspection the prison authorities had been performing maintenance work including repainting and repairs.

Reports on all prisons, including Eastwood Park, can be found online at

The full report can be found online at bit.ly/41abqVx, on the www.justiceinspectorates.gov. uk website.

Clothes store to close

THORNBURY'S M&Co clothes store is set to close after administrators sold the brand - but said there had been no viable offers for the company's chain of 170 shops.

The future of the shop was thrown into doubt in December, when the Scottish-owned retailer went into administration for the second time in two years.

Shortly afterwards the St Mary Centre shop, occupying one of the units with frontage on the High Street, put up posters advertising a 'closing down sale'.

However no official announcement was made on its future at that point, despite another M&Co store, in Yate, closing permanently.

On February 6 it was confirmed that administrators from Teneo Financial Advisory Limited had sold the M&Co brand and intellectual property rights to a Cambridgeshire-based online clothing seller, AK Retail.

But the deal did not include taking on any of M&Co's 170 shops or 2,000 staff, who are now facing redundancy.

Teneo has declined to confirm the number of staff at the Thornbury store who would lose their jobs when the branch shuts.

The BBC reported that several stores across the UK had published posts on their Facebook pages, which said: "Unfortunately we haven't received the news we would have hoped for during our administration period, and would like to share this news with you.

"As we haven't received any funded, deliverable offers that would result in the transfer of the company's stores or staff to a potential buyer, this means that all of our stores will close."

The Thornbury store had not published the post, although the administrators have confirmed that all M&Co stores are set to close.

The branch shared a post advising customers that the company's gift cards would no longer be accepted after February 12 and a further post advertising a closing down sale for the company's online sales business.

No dates have been given for store closures - the Voice understands that each shop will continue to trade while its sales are contributing revenue that can be passed on to creditors, with the administrators monitoring performance on an ongoing basis.

Stores are expected to be shut when they can no longer trade, either because they have run out of stock, their leases have ended, or they are costing more to keep open than they are taking in sales.

The administrators expect each store to announce its own closure date and estimate that most will close in a matter of weeks, but were unable to say when the process will finish.

AK Retail owns specialist online retailers Yours Clothing, Long Tall Sally, BadRhino and Pixiegirl, which sell plus size, tall women's, tall men's and 'petite' clothing ranges respectively.